it's the manti te'o story. notre dame linebacker manti te'o drawing strength from the supposed death of his grandmother, she actually died, and the supposed death of his girlfriend, they supposedly happened within hours of each other. he drew on that strength to excel and lead the team to the bcs title game. but here's the rub, the girlfriend didn't die. she didn't even exist. now manti te'o claims he was duped. but one editor of deadspin has doubts. >> te'o's story that he's completely innocent in this doesn't shake through with us for a couple of reasons. first, we have a lot of stories about how they met. she was a student at stanford. they met after the 2009 football game. we know that didn't happen. >> of course there are questions about where the story came from in the first place. there are a ton of questions here. we want to wait to hear from manti te'o himself here. notre dame officials claim manti never met this supposed girlfriend and they say te'o was the victim of a cruel hoax. >>> it is billed as